Differentiating Your Healthcare Brand

3 Tips for Differentiating Your Healthcare Brand

At a time when patients, caregivers, and medical personnel have more choices than ever, differentiating your healthcare brand is absolutely critical. So when CareWell Health, a world-class community hospital, asked us to help get the word out about the extraordinary care they provide, the first thing we did was lean into their differentiation.

Differentiation isn’t about a new name or new logo, although sometimes those changes can be helpful. It’s about figuring out who you A.R.E. – ie, discovering the core uniqueness that is Authentic to your brand, Relevant to your audience, and Easy to understand.

Here are 3 tips to help with differentiating your healthcare brand:

1. Authentic Differentiation: This is something that is really true about your brand experience right now. It can be a function of your healthcare brand itself, the marketplace, and several other factors. With CareWell Health, that differentiation was quickly obvious: of course they deliver great medical care. But more than that: they deliver it with levels of kindness and respect rarely encountered in a hospital.
2. Relevant Differentiation: This looks at how meaningful your brand message is to your target audience or audiences as a purchase motivation. Think “what’s in it for them.” (After all, if your authentic differentiation doesn’t appeal to the target audience, it’s time to switch to another point of differentiation – or to another audience to whom it will be meaningful.) CareWell Health serves patients of many different cultures, economic stratas, and education levels – and they go to great lengths to ensure every patient receives the medical attention they need and the respect they deserve. Meaningful? You bet.
3. Easy-to-Understand Differentiation: When differentiating your healthcare brand, this element is critical: that differentiation must be an “instant get” – or at least close to instant. If it takes your target audience too long to recognize the relevant differentiation that is rooted in authenticity, keep working at it until you can stick the landing. For CareWell Health, we synthesized the authentic and relevant differentiation into a simple, powerful, easy-to-get tagline: Be Treated Like Family. Not only is it relevant to patients who desire this level of treatment, it also is a source of pride for those who are delivering this extraordinary mixture of medical care and kindness. Win!

“Be Treated Like Family” has become the CareWell Health brand mantra, touching all forms of communication – from web, social, out-of-home and on-site materials to the TV campaign below:

Does your healthcare brand pass the “A.R.E. You Differentiated” test? If not, not to worry. You can keep focusing on providing care to those in need – and let us help you develop that differentiation so you can help even more people. Just send an email to info@theS3agency.com.